


Three weeks

by meikahidenori



Series: Thunderbirds are go AU [13]
Category: thunderbirds are go
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 21:00:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7817056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meikahidenori/pseuds/meikahidenori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>escaping into the desert after being held captive for three weeks in Iran. another one i can't quite think of a great way to end it... but oh well...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three weeks

It had taken the best part of thee weeks, but finally John and Gordon were free.

“Hang on Gordon, Please hang in there.” John panted out of breath. He had his younger and heavier brother slung across his shoulders and dragging his feet behind him in the dust and the sand.

“I’m sorry Johnny. It’s all my fault.” Gordon whispered, his voice cracked and dry.

“Cut it out Gordon. No one’s at fault.”

John stumbled and reached out the the nearest rock face to steady himself. He had been walking with Gordon like this for over an hour and still they were too close to the base where they had been held prisoners. He, Like Gordon had been losing a lot of blood, but unlike Gordon at least he could walk. He had to get them as far away as possible.

They had no communication to the outside world for those three whole weeks, other than the people who tortured them because they spoke english. John no longer had his suit wired to Thunderbird five and his suit was a mess of copper and shredded material anyway so any attempt to make a connection from his PDA device using his suit was defunct.

I hope they are still looking for us… and have not given up, he prayed silently in the back of his mind. Otherwise we are dead men… unless the desert swallows us first.

“If… If I didn’t crash the pod… That sand storm came out of -”

“They would have shot us down. Better we crashed. We’re still alive.” John interrupted his brother before he could make himself feel guilty for their predicament. If anything it was John’s fault for not paying attention to the sudden change in weather conditions and failing to let Gordon know to pull out in time.

Who knew this little side mission for the GDF would go so horribly wrong?

Ahead of them lay nothing but expansive desert and the sun bore down it’s blanket of heat, but still John kept walking. He had to. There was no going back.

Eventually John stumbled down the side of a dune, both brothers tumbled down and landed in a heap. Gordon tried to shake John awake, but exhaustion and heat stroke had taken their toll on his older brother. He dragged him with what little strength he had back into the shade the sand dune offered. It wasn’t much but John needed to rest as much as he did. He couldn't keep this up forever, Gordon was far too heavy for that. They needed help and needed it soon.

Being carried had given Gordon time to think about the events that had happened, or more importantly, the bits he could remember and was conscious for.

They were still in Iran… he suspected. He wasn’t sure anymore. They had been asked by the GDF to do some peacekeeping thingy… he couldn’t recall all the details other than that they got caught in a sudden sandstorm and it brought the hovering pod crashing nose down into the dirt. John had pulled Gordon free from the crash, luckily neither of them were seriously hurt. Unluckily their crash had been watched and they were set upon by a terrorist faction that was reported to still be active in the area. 

Bound and gagged, they been taken to some facility deep in the heart of canyon country in the middle of the desert. Blindfolded, occasionally poked and prodded with the end of a gun and sworn at in arabic they were led inside and thrown into a cell, where they were to spend the next three weeks of suffering and pain at the hands of crazed mad men.

“John… hey… wake up.. Don’t go to sleep on me.” Gordon nudged his brother. John’s face reflected his- pale and ashen- the only difference was who had bruises and who was the one covered with bloody head injuries. Earily on the captours learned that by torturing John mentally by hurting Gordon physically was a huge weakness in the taller Tracy and both of them suffered greatly for it. That didn’t mean they tried the reverse a few times, but John had a much higher pain threshold than Gordon and Gordon’s own mouth got him into serious trouble.

“Gords…”

“Yeah I’m here John. We are still in the desert, remember Johnny? We need to get out of the sun and into the shade.” Gordon tried talking to his brother the way Scott used to when John was sick and was supposed to be in bed instead of chasing off imaginary monsters for his little brothers. It wasn’t the nicest thing to do but it got results.

“Got to free Gordon…”

“Already did that Johnny… right now we are running away remember?”

“Gordon can’t… they broke his legs…”

Gordon rested his blood crusted forehead against his older brothers and held it there a minute. Physically Gordon knew he was going to be fine in a few months… maybe a year, long enough to forget about this whole incident because something else came up that was just as dangerous. He’d quite possibly be the same way mentally too. There wasn’t much they could do to John that would scar Gordon for life everytime he spoke to his sibling.

For John however… those mental scars may never fully heal. Parts of his fragile psyche was already damaged before hand years ago by their father and as far as Gordon was concerned, John was never fully the same after that. This could have broken him more than Gordon could imagine.

“It’s me you numbat. We have to keep going before they realise we’ve gone.” he said softly, trying to bring his brother back into the real and currently dangerous world of escaped prisoners.

“Hav...Have to keep going.” John struggled to sit up, but once achieved he seemed to look worse than he did lying in the sand. He looked at Gordon and tried to focus, and Gordon realised John was probably really dehydrated. They had withheld water from John the last two days before their escape and it really showed. Going without food was one thing, you can last at least a week…. But without water…

His brother was the only chance they had of getting out of the desert alive. Dehydrated and exhausted or not, Gordon had little choice about making his brother do all the hard work. There was one thing he could do, and that was annoy his sibling enough to get moving and prevent him from losing consciousness, at the very least for a few more hours. Hopefully they were somewhere safe by then.

Hopefully.

“Come on John, you can do it. Remember what you used to tell me when I felt like I was never going to make the olympic team?”

His brother had to really concentrate to think before speaking, something that would have been funny if they were not about to die.

“Show them what you can do…” he mumbled.

Ok, so that’s not what he told Gordon, but he was willing to accept the fact his brother was completely mentally busted right about now and anything longer than ten words was going to be pushing it.

John rubbed his temples and then got up onto his feet and looked around. Desert for miles around but no sign of being pursued… at least for now. He leaned back down and lifted Gordon again like he had earlier and started picking his way through the sand dunes, the extra weight making each of his footsteps sink deep into it making it difficult to walk.

“Come on John… left…. Right foot.. Left foot… that’s it.”

“Shut up Gordon.”

Gordon found himself smiling. Sure being told to shut up isn’t something he should be smiling at but right now that lucid response was enough to make him happy. It meant his brother’s brain was getting it’s shit back together…. Or at least some form of coherent thought process.

“How… How about no?” Gordon snorted quietly. “If it keeps you going… then I will keep talking…”

John paused in his steps and Gordon could feel his sibling shake as he started to laugh. It was dry and really throaty, but nevertheless he was still doing it.

“F-Fine.” he said eventually, before picking up his slow and very methodical walking pace again.

The midday sun in the desert is an unforgiving mistress, even now Gordon was beginning to feel the effects of the heat. He could only guess how bad John was taking it. The sun sat directly overhead and there was nowhere that offered any sign of shade, even the dunes themselves didn’t cast shadows at this time of day. Every so often John would have to pause, reshuffle his brother into a more comfortable carrying position before continuing. Sweat was pouring off his brow and down his bare arms, the tight fitting thermal space suit forcing him to perspire faster and more intensely than he usually would. The sweat kept some of the heat off him as a slight breeze danced across the dunes, but without any fluids to replenish it it offered little to no relief.

Eventually he collapsed again, this time Gordon was ready and braced himself for the sudden drop to the ground. His whole body screamed in pain, but that was nothing in comparison to his brother passing out from the heat without anyway to rehydrate. Gordon had no idea how thick the layers of the space suit was until he tried to peel it off to the waist. His brother should have collapsed hours ago when the sun had hit its full peak. Even Gordon’s wet suit which was thermo lined wasn’t as thick as that suit… not that it was full suit anymore. The sleeves were long gone and the legs were shredded, but the main problem had been the extra heat against his chest and lower body, almost roasting him alive from the inside.

“Have to rescue…. Gord… hav…” John mumbled as he struggled to breathe.

“You did rescue me John. I’m right here. I haven't left you.”

“H- have to rescue… re..res… they’re goin…. Going to hurt him…” John’s voice sounded distant and full of rising panic. Gordon realised he was going in and out of consciousness and the current activity of walking into the middle of the desert carrying him was completely overshadowed by whatever nightmares he had suffered for three long weeks.

He looked up blearily at Gordon and for a few minutes couldn’t place who he was. Gordon was ready and was able to block John’s swing with his good arm but hollered in pain when John grabbed the other and tried to throw Gordon out of the way.

“Let him go!” John tried to shout, however it was more of a horse grunt. “You bastards hurt… My Brother! I’ll kill you!” and with that he was now sitting on top of Gordon pinning him to the sand.

“OW! HEY! JOHNNY CALM DOWN!” Gordon cried out, his body screaming out as if it was being thrown around like a rag doll. He felt the grip on his shoulders relax as his brother registered what he was doing and tried to quickly get off him and help him sit upright. The fast reaction was not the smartest thing for him to do, as he almost collapsed against Gordon after brushing him down, the smaller Tracy catching him and resting him against his good shoulder.

“Sorry…. Gord...Gordon.”

John’s arms gently wrapped around his brother protectively and Gordon didn’t make any of his usual attempts to brush his sibling off. He knew he needed the reassurance as much as his brother did, and this time it also meant John wasn’t going to attack him again by mistake.

“It’s ok…. You’re really buggered so it’s ok.”

He didn't expect John’s grip to tighten around his waist and haul him over his shoulder. His older brother then stood up, stumbled a little under the uneven weight but righted himself and started to walk again.

“Hey Wait a second John! You need to stop and rest! You can’t keep carrying me around in the heat!” Gordon slapped his brother’s bareback which was now blistering red from sunburn, his pale skin unable to handle so much direct sun in one go. When that didn’t seem to stop him Gordon grabbed a hold of the suit John had stripped down to his waist with his good hand and just hung on tight, hoping John was not going to drop him all over again.

Gordon knew why John didn’t want to stop trying to get out of the desert. The thought had started to feel like cement in his guts, but there wasn’t much he could do about it in his condition.

Those three weeks John was tied down and forced to listen to his brother scream in pain. Those three weeks he had been forced to watch them beat his brother and throw him around like he was stuffed full of straw. Those three weeks they withheld food and water at intervals hoping that the thought of starvation would make him talk. When they tried the same to Gordon they kept holding his brother’s head under water, increasing the length of time each dunking. They didn’t break anything like they did to Gordon but looking down John's back under all that sunburn was marks, bruises and whiplash cuts, the blood dried from them days before…. He didn’t get out of it unharmed. Gordon also knew under the hair at the back of his brother’s head there was a patch that had been cut and then tattooed some strange symbol, possibly the mark that the terrorists used to represent themselves… carved into his skin.

He was angry…. Not just at what they had done to them, but at himself for not being able to stop it. Gordon knew his brother got very violent when something happened to any of them because he was fiercely protective. That’s why there was no fighting in the house at home…. They all learned long ago that John, while weaker than the rest of them, could fight really dirty and seriously hurt someone when the right motivation was presented. Gordon had been on the end of it more than enough times when they were kids and he shirked his responsibilities looking after Alan... it was always well deserved too. Then there was Virgil’s drinking problem…. Gordon didn’t see that happen, but the end result while, Virgil was the only person standing afterward was a sight to behold. The carnage in John’s little Florida apartment was something nightmares were made of after one big fist fight turned the place into something resembling the mess in Scott’s bedroom back at the island.. He couldn’t believe it when he and Scott both laid eyes on it. Alan said he had never seen John so mad before. Then there was the day their father phoned about Gordon’s hydrofoil crash…. Alan said the phone was torn clear from the wall and thrown out the window, and he had to stop John from doing the same to the kettle and the toaster when he couldn’t get them to work because he was still frustrated.

Gordon knew it took a lot for John to reach that level of pent up rage too. Usually it could be brushed aside as a minor annoyance, but there was times where he would snap, just like everyone else. Gordon liked teasing him before it got to that stage as he would let up and eventually talk about what was eating him up inside. He also knew it could be the exact opposite too. John never let on he had weaknesses and things but when Scott had to pull Gordon aside and talk about his college LSD habit he ran into the problem of the examples about him and Virgil involved John and when pressed for more details, Scott came clean.

Gordon learned his brother was human after all.

Like each of them, His brother had also hit a point of his life where it was rock bottom. He one upped them from drug addiction or alcohol abuse….he wound up working at a sleazy night club. Hard to imagine his quiet, usually gentle and protective older sibling to do, but Scott was pretty descriptive in a way that Gordon knew he was not making this up and it was never to be repeated to anyone else in the family. Then there was the drinking after their father’s funeral…. Gordon and John ended up being left alone at the bar and despite the fight they had at the cemetery… Gordon realised how much hostility there was between John and their father Jeff and John’s various attempts at suicide while exiled on thunderbird five for an entire year with little to no contact with anyone on the ground. It took a great deal of guts to hang in there and be able to channel all that depression into something constructive… and be able to help them save lives on the day that Jeff was forced to bring him down to earth because he completely overloaded the power systems on the space station just to be able to do what he left NASA for…. help his brothers rescue people.

Gordon had more respect for John that he had for any of his brothers when it came to dealing with personal problems. He understood why Alan did too. This is why he understood John’s messed up mental state right now and why he was desperate to get Gordon out of the desert, even if it killed him.

He noticed his brother stopping again, this time to put Gordon down softly onto the sand. Gordon righted himself so he was sitting up but he couldn’t tell much from his brother’s expression.

“Maybe…. Ma… maybe some shade after...afterall.”

“Shade?” Gordon looked at his brother as if John had finally gone a little more than just losing the plot.

“Can...on..” he murmured.

“Another one? Or have we gone in circles?” Gordon sounded worried when he realised they might have just been walking around back to where they escaped from.

“N-no…. Diff...ent. Looks….different.”

“Not really much choice regardless though is it?” Gordon gave John a reassuring smile.

“No….n..need shade.”

“How far?”

“Hour….ma..maybe half…”

“Can you walk that much longer?” Gordon sounded concerned. John as barley making sentences together and seemed to be swaying a little.

“Sick…” John rubbed his face with the balls of his hands harshly like a little child who was trying to fight sleep.

“Just a little bit longer John… I don’t know what we are going to do when it gets dark though. It can get really cold out here.” that was the other problem that had only just occurred to Gordon. Thermal suits aside, there was no way they were going to be able to last the night under the stars out here… at least he wouldn’t. Gordon was terrible when it came to the cold.

“Can’t...have…. Th..that..” John picked his brother up again a bit more carefully this time and started the long trek towards the distant promise of shelter from the weather.

Eventually, Gordon noticed his brother starting to stagger and started to encourage him to keep going. “Left foot…. Right foot… that’s it, left…”

This time John didn’t tell him to shut up and just let Gordon order him to move. He was struggling rather badly now and being told what he had to do meant he could mentally shut everything else out to concentrate.

“Right left… left.. Hey Johnny stop… STOP. We can’t go anywhere anymore.”

Gordon looked around at their new rocky surroundings. He was glad John did stop on command as otherwise he would have just walked right off the rock shelf they were standing on.

“Over there.” Gordon pointed with his good arm to another outcrop that looked pretty sable, out of the sun and the wind. “We can stop there… maybe wait it out a while.”

John slowly walked over to Gordon’s scouted spot and tucked Gordon under the outcrops shade and protection before flopping down in a heap beside him. Gordon didn’t let him fall asleep without leaning him onto his badly damaged lap as to keep a better eye on him and to also keep them both warm as the skies started going dark. He pulled John’s suit back over his shoulders then started trying to find the symbol buried under his brother’s hair. He didn’t recognise it and was pretty certain it wasn’t truly arabic in origin. He would have to ask Scott, as long as John would agree to it it been seen.. As at least he could read it.

Gordon was used to his brothers looking out for him, only ever leaving Gordon to worry about himself and occasionally Alan. it wasn’t often he had to worry about any of the older three…. And even less so about John. That was Scott’s Job. 

After all of this however, that view was going to change. Having his brother mindlessly relying on him to keep him going as he slowly fell to pieces Gordon was beginning to feel a sense of responsibility for looking after his older sibling as by doing so would help both of their survival.

Gordon woke up hours later shivering and wondering where his brother had gone. He didn’t need to look far, as his brother was crouching, listening to something in the dark.

An animal… hopefully Gordon felt himself holding his breath. But the way his brother was listening, watching… it was clear that it wasn’t going to be something that simple.

John seemed to be more alert with some sleep and Gordon was thankful for it as by now his body was starting to become a huge problem. The cold was not helping his broken bones and his other wounds had been weeping while he slept. If a fight broke out at any point Gordon knew that he was a sitting duck and if they took John down there was not alot he could do. 

Gordon watched quietly as his brother slowly crept out from their hide, however the one thing that John lacked was the knowledge of how to stay within the shadows. In the dark it wouldn’t have made too much of a difference, but Gordon knew that John was now in the open and if there was anything hostile out there, made himself a very visible target. Gordon dragged himself across, keeping in the darkness, but getting close enough to his brother just to be able to keep an eye on him. John stared off into the dark mostly using his hearing to dictate where he could look. Gordon would have said it was like watching a cat but at least a cat could see in the dark. More like a rat… something that can hear really well, has poor eyesight but very twitchy and hyper aware that it was being watched.

John made a few steps forward as if to try and make out something in the darkness before gunshots rang out in the distance. He tried to duck back into the hide, but with Gordon in the way his route was blocked when the next lot of gunfire sounded. Gordon’s eyes were wide as his brother fell in front of him, bullet wound through his chest. Gordon grabbed his fallen sibling and attempted to drag him back into the safety of the overhang. He shook his brother and checked him over, breathing a little better that the shot didn’t hit anything vital and that his brother was still reasonably alright, just bleeding heavily from the wound. Gordon tried to put weight on it to stem the flow of blood as there was nothing at hand to do otherwise. There was more gunfire and a few bullets brushed the rock face over their heads.

Gordon took a deep breath and shouted as loud as he could, “STOP SHOOTING WE SURRENDER! WE’RE UNARMED AND IN NEED OF MEDICAL ATTENTION!” his voice echoed out and reverberated around the canyon. He took another breath. “WE ARE WITH INTERNATIONAL RESCUE! PLEASE CEASE FIRE!”

Well, if they are hostile… they knew where they were now and they were pretty much dead. There wasn’t much else he could have done though. Gordon was in no condition to go anywhere and that wound John just acquired meant even if they were left alone they were going to die out here anyway. At least if it was their captors again they may be merciful and just take them back to be tortured…. But at least they’d be alive a little longer.

“International Rescue? Why would International Rescue be doing out here?”

Gordon paused. Their attackers spoke english… and knew about International Rescue.

That didn’t mean they were good guys by any means. As he heard footsteps getting closer, Gordon pulled his brother close and held him protectively although since it was one handed it looked more like he was using him as a shield.

Torchs flickered into the crevice and Gordon winced as lights shone in his face, allowing whoever it was to see both him and John but unable to see who was holding the light. Well here goes nothing.

“Please… My brother was shot and I can’t walk. We had been held prisoner against our will till this morning… My brother managed to get us out and across the desert… but we won’t survive out here much longer…. No thanks to you.”

“Gords…”

“It’s alright John. if we are going to die, then someone should be held responsible.” 

The lights were lowered or at the very least moved out of their faces when they realized who their new captors were. The leader indicated to one of his men, a young lady who wore the uniform of a medic to give them a hand while he turned and took the speaker for a radio com of a vox operator and made a call out.

“This is Lieutenant Gerfrik of squad 365; Tell the Commander of the GDF we have two people claiming to be International Rescue in our custody. Awaiting orders on what to do with them.”

Gordon tried hard to listen to the rest of the communications but the medic was pretty insistent to check him over the second she had stopped John from bleeding to death.

“Have you any water?” Gordon asked her. “My brother is really badly dehydrated.”

“I’m surprised you’re still able to talk.” she said, pausing to rummage in her pack. “You look worse than he does.”

“I’ve been though a lot worse than he has more times than I can count… I can hold it together a lot more.” Gordon tried to smile. “But it’s really only stubbornness and adrenaline that’s kept me functional… that and the fact between the two of us, someone still had to have a stroke of sanity.”

She handed Gordon a canteen of water. “Knock your socks off. While you do that, I’ll strap those broken bones in your legs and that arm.

“Sounds like a plan.” Gordon smirked. He held the canteen to John's lips and forced some water into his brother, before taking a sip himself. Sweet heebie-jeebies, it felt like forever that he’d been thirsty…. He couldn’t imagine how bad John had been feeling without any for days.”Oh uh.. You might want to give my brother some sedative before you try and stick any IV fluids into him….” Gordon felt as if he needed to let the young lady know something very important. “Last thing you want is my brother waking up thinking we’ve been captured again. He’ll put up a really nasty fight as the only thing that’s been coherent the last few hours had been his urge to protect me and get me to safety. Don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”

The medic nodded and Gordon sat back a little more on the rock behind him feeling a little better that they were now reasonably safe. Safe enough to let his guard down and finally fall asleep.

***  
Being laid up in bed with three plaster casts was not Gordon’s idea of a fun recovery. He had not been home for longer than a few days before Colonel Casey from the GDF was in asking both him and John questions about what had happened to them on their simple peacekeeping mission. Gordon found he couldn’t bring himself to tell her very much as it made him feel sick to recall the bit he could remember…. And well from what he heard from the sick bay where John still was… she wasn’t going to be finding anything out from him until he spoke to someone about PTSD syndrome as he was still very much ready to attack anyone who tried to touch him without him being sedated. He was worried about his older sibling, clearly something were still pretty livid in his memory and he was having a hard time trying to separate it from current reality.

Gordon knew what could be done about that, except his other brothers were getting in the way. He knew John needed to talk but on his own terms and no one was better qualified to do that than Gordon… except no one would let him. There was only so long you could keep feeding John sedatives before he got either suicidal or too dependent on them just to function and Gordon didn’t want either to happen after all the shit they had been through.

Right now his brother needed a shoulder that was steady enough and also someone who wouldn’t judge due to knowing exactly how it felt. Sadly no one was going to let him offer it.

That… and Gordon himself needed the extra comfort to remind him that he was at home. Not having his older brother fuss over him and being an annoying pain in the arse was getting to him. He couldn’t believe himself when he realised he was missing that small piece of his brother’s usual affection as it always irked him how whenever someone got badly hurt John would spend his time trying to make them feel better to recover faster. Right now he could have really used it.

Sure Scott came in along with Virgil and Alan, but it wasn’t the same. They all had their moments too when it came to helping someone along with a recovery but it lacked the free meals and the general ability to just be straight with someone about shit hitting the fan.

He found himself asking Alan for books that his older brother would usually read to try and fill that gap. He figured Alan must have been having a go at him as he brought several books on comedic science fiction, but then again… Gordon never realised how much he and John were the same until recently. He sat up most nights now reading ‘Good Omens’ and ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy’ and felt a little bit better that he knew where he stood in the family as of now. Gordon always felt like the odd one out being the one obsessed with water and the ocean… but now that obsession seemed parallel to the one bis brother had for space and what might be beyond the stars. He started to feel a little like he belonged in the family afterall.

It was pretty late, his other brothers had stopped doing their rounds checking on the invalids and had knocked off for the night and Gordon found himself looking out his bedroom window from the comfort of being sandwiched between several over stuffed pillows. The stars glittered over the ocean which reflected them back in kind. It was a beautiful sight. He really wished he could be out there to enjoy it.

“Gords?”

Gordon rolled over and could just make out someone slouching in the doorway to his bedroom. Slouching might not have been the exact word once Gordon realised who it was. Smiling, Gordon patted the side of his bed with his arm that was in plaster so it made a really good thumping sound. It took a few seconds for his visitor to stand upright and make their way over to the bed, almost dropping on the double mattress like a heavy stone.

“Hey careful, still in plaster!” Gordon grumbled, but the smile didn’t fade.

His brother cuddled into him tight and burned his head into the crook of his neck. “Sorry Gordie.” the apology was quiet and very childlike.

“It’s ok.” Gordon whispered back, letting himself just melt into his brothers warm embrace. Occasionally he could feel his brother shake and adjust his arms around him, sometimes tightening his grip which to Gordon meant his brother was reassuring himself that he was still there and still alive. In away, John was still a really big kid that had been forced to grow up far too fast, leaving certain parts of his personality deeply buried in a box marked ‘still a child.’ sometimes Gordon hated it, but right now he was happy to be smothered by his brother, the big terrified kid who just wanted his sibling to be safe.

Maybe one day they’ll sit and talk about this… but for now this was plenty.


End file.
